I believe this is the post viewers have been awaiting. I spent Friday (the 18th of May) and Saturday (the 19th) in Toronto, playing with my Dino-Rabbits. This report covers everything that happened, during the duration of these days.
FRIDAY
I leave for Toronto at around noon with Raymond, and arrive at Toronto at around 2:00. We stopped at some restaurant where I mastered eating with chopsticks (I've never really used them before...). Afterwards, we arrived at our temporary residence, and we playtested for about 3 hours. I swapped back and forth between Dino-Rabbits and Chaos Dragons (so Raymond could practice using Inzektors against it.) and Raymond swapped between Inzektors and Chaos Dragons ( so I can practice Dino-Rabbits against it). Anyway, playtesting seemed to go really well in my favour, although I did have difficulty against Dragons.
I felt confident enough, though, and carried that attitude with me to Card Masters, for their Friday night local tournament. For those who don't know, Card Masters is the home of popular players like the Bellido brothers, Bo Tang, Aaron Noel and Jeffery Cho. I knew that this would be somewhat more difficult than my Belleville Friday night local tournament.
Round 1 vs Jeffery Cho: Chaos Dragons (1-2)
Game 1 I opened with Rabbit and made a Laggia, and then set some other cards. Basically, I had an answer for everything he did, and he proceeded to lose to my Laggia and Dolkka, which I made with 2 normal monsters I drew... Anyway, he exploded on me game 2. Game 3, I was controlling him with Macro for most of the game, but I never drew Rabbit or Tour Guide. Eventually he summoned Eclipse Wyvern, banished it for REDMD, and started beating me down with it, and I had no more answers, so I lost.
This was a little discouraging. However, I realized that I can still top if I won my next 3 matches.
Round 2 vs Lazaro Bellido: Hieratics (2-0)
Game 1 he went first and immediately passed. I drew, summoned Rabbit and made Dolkka, which took away 2300 life points. I set a couple cards to my spell/trap zone and ended. He kept setting traps, but I kept destroying them with multiple MST. I beat him down with Dolkka the entire game. he eventually made a play, and summoned a REDMD, but I had the Dimensional Prison, which was the only trap I drew. Game 2 he passed immediately again. I played Rabbit and summoned another Dolkka and attacked, setting a couple traps like the previous game. He normal summoned Eset, and banished it for REDMD. He attacked my Dolkka, but I had the Lance to survive the battle. Next turn, I summon Kabazauls and attack with both my monsters. He drew for his turn, thought for a bit, and scooped because he had nothing on my Dolkka.
So it's good to know how badly Dolkka wrecks Hieratics.
Round 3 vs Inzektors (2-0)
Game 1 He set a monster and backrow. I summoned Guaiba and attacked his face down Sangan. He searched Dragonfly and I summoned Guaiba, which became a Dolkka, with multiple traps set. He used MST on my Warning. He summoned Centipede and I had Bottomless Trap Hole. He set another face-down card and passed. I attacked with Dolkka and set another trap. He summoned Dragonfly, and I negated its effect with Dolkka. He flipped Call of the Haunted and I chained MST. Next turn I summoned my third Guaiba. I attacked with both. He drew, and set a monster. I drew, attacked with Dolkka into Spirit Reaper. I used Lance on Reaper and I won. Game 2 he set a monster with almost his entire hand. I summoned Sabersaurus, and he activated Bottomless, but I chained Lance. I attacked into his face-down Dragonfly and took some damage. I set most of my hand after that. He set another monster and ended, then I flipped up Macro Cosmos and he didn't have an answer. I attacked his face-down Sangan and banished it. I set another trap. He switched his Dragonfly to attack and activated Safe Zone, which I didn't have a response to. For a while we were just stalling, until I drew a Twister (that's right, a Twister) and destroyed Safe Zone, which destroyed Dragonfly. I made a Laggia right after, and took control and eventually killed him.
Round 4 vs Inzektors (2-0)
I won the die roll, and opened up with Rabbit into Laggia, and set some traps. He summoned Dragonfly, which I negated with Warning. He activated Dark Hole, and I chained Lance. He set some traps and ended. I summoned Tour Guide, made Leviair, and summoned Rabbit which turned on into 2 Sabersaurus. Laggia + Leviair + 2 Sabersaurus = 8000. Game 2 I managed to get Laggia and Dolkka on the field, without the use of Rabbit... but was stalled for a while by Arcana Force - The Fool. I had Macro Cosmos face-up so he was unable to do anything. Eventually, I won by drawing a Rabbit, and then summoned Photon Papilloperative, which switched the Fool into attack mode, and won that turn.
After this I did make the Top 8 thankfully.
Top 8 match vs Dino-Rabbit (2-1)
Unfortunately I don't remember how I won game 1. Game 2 the only monster I drew the entire game was Kabazauls, and he opened double Rabbit with Heavy Storm... so I lost that game. Game 3 I started with Rabbit and made a Laggia, with one card set. I used Veiler on his Rabbit, and destroyed his set MST with my MST. I summoned Kabazauls, attacked into his Rabbit with Laggia, and ended my turn, in case he had Gorz. He set a monster and passed. I summoned another Kabazauls, and made a Dolkka. Dolkka killed his face-down Kabazauls, and Laggia attacked directly. He scooped next turn, with Gorz in his hand, along with a bunch of other monsters and useless traps.
Top 4 match vs Gravekeepers (2-0)
Game 1 I swarmed him with Rabbit and Tour Guide plays immediately and he didn't stand a chance. Game 2 was Kabazauls beatdown. My Kabazauls attacked directly 3 times, and I had 2 warnings for his 2 monsters. He ended up using Dark Hole on my Kabazauls, and passed that turn with no monsters. I attacked him directly with my Sangan. He used Gravekeeper Stele to add 2 monsters to his. He summoned Descendant and attacked my Sangan and I search Rabbit. He activated Royal Tribute, discarding my Rabbit and Veiler. I draw a Rabbit and he scooped.
Unfortunately, I had to split 1st and 2nd place with Dale Bellido, since the store owner was closing his shop for the night. It was past 11 p.m... Oh well, I can live that since technically I ended up with the best standing, tie with Dale, and won $30.
Raymond and I ended up going back to our place of residence at midnight.
SATURDAY
At midnight we ordered pizza and continued to playtest. Raymond's friend came over, who is also named Raymond, and he playtested as well, since he was going to use our Chaos Dragon deck at Regionals. During this playtesting, I started to lose many games, and this was discouraging. I decided to change around my deck a little, and Raymond I started to considering using a card in the main deck that I never considered in the main deck: Thunder King Rai-Oh. It's good against Dragons, Wind-Ups, Six Samurai and Heroes, it's ok against Rabbit and Dark World, but terrible against Inzektors. I tried it out anyway. Sure enough, it was working against Chaos Dragons, but against Inzektors I wish those Thunder Kings were Guaibas, because I took out the 3 Guaiba for 2 Thunder King and a BLS...
Anyway, both Raymonds went to bed at around 3 a.m and for the rest of the night, I fiddled around with my deck. I contemplated maining 1 Maxx "C", because it's good against almost everything. Rabbit, Dragons, Inzektors, and especially Wind-Ups. Deep down, I was afraid of getting looped, and I would feel a little more comfortable if I used 3 Veiler and 1 Maxx "C". So I spent many hours, until about 7:45 practicing with myself, and seeing what I liked.
Raymond, other Raymond, and I arrived at around 9, and we got entered and got ready to play.The Regionals consisted of 217 players, and Top 32 would be awarded with a Nationals invite. From our local area, I participated, along with Raymond (Inzektors), Josh (Six Samurai), Rori (Wind-Ups) and Jordan (Wind-Ups). Jordan also brought his friend along, who was just getting into the game, and other Raymond joined us. And now, the Regionals report:
Round 1 vs Other Raymond (2-0)
Game 1 I opened with Rabbit and made Dolkka (since I knew he was playing Chaos Dragons), and set some traps. He set a monster and passed. I summoned Tour Guide and made a Laggia, and I won that game shortly after. Game 2 he did swarm me a little bit, but with some Rabbit plays, and some spells and traps, I broke through his monsters, and reduced him down to 2 dead Solar Recharges. Yeah...
It was unfortunate that I played him first round, out of everyone their. But he wasn't discouraged, and we both moved on.
Round 2 vs Chaos Dragons (2-0)
Game 1 he started and played his Charge of the Light Brigade, and all 3 Solar Recharges... He set a monster and passed. I summoned Thunder King and attacked his face-down Ryko, which killed my monster. I set 2 cards and passed. He played Heavy Storm and destroyed my traps. He summoned Darkflare Dragon, Light Pulsar Dragon and BLS. He attacked with Darkflare, then Light Pulsar, then BLS, and with 100 points remaining I dropped Gorz, with a 3000 token. He played Smashing Ground to destroy my Kaien Token and he ended his turn by setting one card. I activated Monster Reborn on his Lyla, which he let through, and I destroyed his face-down Torrential Tribute. I summoned my BLS, then I summoned Kabazauls. I used Kabazauls and Lyla to make Utopia, then Utopia Ray. I used Utopia Ray to drop his BLS down to 0 attack, and I won that turn. Game 2 I had Macro active so he couldn't get any monsters in his graveyard the entire game. I had answers for both of Lylas. This game I beat him down with Kabazauls and Fossil Dyna (it's a good card against dragons).
Round 3 vs Dino-Rabbits (2-1)
Unfortunately I don't remember this match very well at all. The guy I played was cool though. His Dino-Rabbit deck played Shrink, so his Guaibas were more powerful against other monsters. This is an idea I've wanted to try for a while. It was fun.
Round 4 vs Chaos Dragons (0-2)
We had a very close game 1. His deck had about 10 cards left, and I had a face-up Kabazauls with 400 life points left. He was top-decking, and the only cards left that could kill me in his deck was one Chaos Sorcerer and one Darkflare dragon. He drew one of them and I lost. Game 2 I got completely destroyed by dragon plays. I had no traps at all, and I opened 4 normal monsters and a Thunder King, which was practically useless, because Card Trooper is a good card...
This was rather disappointing that I lost. I don't like losing...
Round 5 vs Blaze Fenix OTK (2-0)
I opened Rabbit and made a Laggia, after he went first and I assumed he was playing Blaze Fenix. I had the MST for when he played Fusion Gate on his turn. He summoned Cyber Valley and passed. I summoned Thunder King, attacked into his Cyber Valley and ended. On my next turn I overpowered him with Tour Guide. Game 2 Catastor put in some work, because he couldn't kill it, and I was able to stop the OTK by using Warning on his Chain Material.
I really like this deck. I made it once before but it really was too fragile. I will probably revisit it and make it better at some point.
Round 6 vs Chaos Dragons (2-0)
Both of these games were really close, but really funny. He summoned his BLS and did some damage, then I summoned my BLS and after he used Veiler on my BLS to prevent me from banishing his, I play Dark Hole, which also killed his Darkflare Dragon. On his turn he used Monster Reborn on my BLS, and I dropped Gorz, and he ended his turn. On my turn I used Monster Reborn on his BLS, banished my BLS on his side off the field, summoned Sabersaurus and beat him that turn. Game 2 was similar. After a few turns, he summoned BLS, but I destroyed it with Torrential. I brought it back with Monster Reborn, and that BLS won me the game a few turns later.
Fortunately, that was the last Dragon deck I would be facing, but playing against Dragons half the day is really stupid. Reminds me of Agents, because it was Tier 1 deck that anyone could play because it was cheap...
Round 7 vs Dino-Rabbit (0-2)
This match was really depressing. He summoned 2 Rabbits, both games, and I didn't have Veilers, or my own Rabbits, just normal monsters and useless Thunder Kings...
Yeah, so I have to win the next match, or I don't top. Unfortunately, I'm paired against Rori last round, which means whoever wins tops, and other person doesn't top.
Round 8 vs Wind-Ups (2-0)
Game 1 I had a hand trap to prevent my hand from being looped with Magician, Shark and Pot of Avarice first turn. I went and summoned Rabbit, and made a Dolkka and attacked his Zenmaines that he made, and set most of my hand. At the end phase I detached a material from Dolkka to prevent Zenmaines from blowing something up. Next turn he used Mind Control on my Dolkka, summoned Tour Guide and went into Sangan. I decided to Torrential Tribute the field at that point, and I used my Forbidden Lance to prevent Dolkka from being destroyed (Typically I would've used Torrential after he overlayed the Tour Guide and Sangan, which would prevented a Sangan search, but I didn't. I felt like being as nice as possible, which is very rare...). Anyway he searched another Tour Guide, and ended his turn, which means I got my Dolkka back. I won shortly after. Game 2 he went first and set a monster and a trap. I summoned Thunder King and attacked, but he activated Thunder King, and I was fine with that (since Thunder King can negate a special summon under Fiendish Chain). I set many cards in my hand again, and ended my turn, in case he would loop me next turn. He normal summoned Hunter but I banished it with Bottomless Trap Hole. On my turn I summoned Rabbit and then I won in no time.
So I ended up going X-2, and coming 16th overall, which is pretty good. It's about fucking time as well. This format disgusts me because I didn't lose any games because of lack of skill: I lost because of top-decks and hands that are practically impossible to defeat when I draw shit. Sure, I sacked a few people today, but the games that I didn't draw Rabbit were based on outplaying my opponents, which I did.
Now that I topped a Regionals, I can relax a little and defeat people with decks that aren't Dino-Rabbit. However, in a few weeks I will have to prepare for Nationals, since I'm already 90% certain I can attend the event. I will likely upload a video of my Dino-Rabbit deck in a few days, and start writing blogs on Yu-Gi-Oh related content that doesn't necessarily focus on Dino-Rabbit nearly as much.
This is the longest post I've ever typed. Enjoy.
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